MANILA, Philippines — Several groups of youth and student leaders from across the country launched on Monday the ‘National Youth SONA (State-of-the-Nation Address) Action Day, which they would hold on July 22, four days before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers his 5th SONA at the Batasang Pambansa Complex.
Led by Akbayan Youth and the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP), the campaign will bring together students, young workers, first-time voters, campus organizations, and youth leaders in simultaneous actions nationwide, the organizers said.
Euel Santos, of Akbayan Youth and a University of the Philippines-Diliman engineering student, told The Manila Times that the nationwide mobilization would also highlight a human chain and candlelight ceremony along Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City.
“This would symbolize the youth's unity and determination to fight for a better future,” he stressed.
Khylla Meneses, Akbayan Youth national chairman, said the real state of the youth was not what they would hear in Marcos’ SONA.
“It is classrooms without enough teachers, students forced to stop studying because they can't afford it, and young people who are being left behind. We refuse to inherit a future that keeps failing us," Meneses said during the launch at the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) office, also in the city.
Meneses lamented that the country's education system continued to fail millions of students while young graduates struggled to find stable and dignified work.
Thea Mangussad, UP Alyansa chairman and 3rd-year UP Diliman student, said that education should have opened doors for many young Filipinos “who graduate only to face unemployment, low wages, and insecure jobs.”
“Our generation deserves opportunities that match our hard work, not an economy that keeps us stuck in uncertainty," Mangussad said.
During the launch, Meneses raised alarm over the worsening mental health crisis and the increasing incidents of violence in schools.
"Students are carrying heavier burdens than ever before. Many are struggling in silence while school campuses are becoming less safe. Mental health support and safe learning spaces should not be optional anymore,” she said.
She added that it was the government’s responsibility to invest in children’s mental health.
Beyond these crises, young Filipinos are also facing growing threats to democratic participation, Mangussad said.
"The youth should never be treated as a problem for speaking out. We have the right to organize, protest, and demand accountability,” she said.
Saying democracy becomes weaker every time young voices are silenced, intimidated, or ignored, Mangussad said: “We need a generation that's difficult to be blinded, difficult to persuade, and impossible to ignore.”
The National Youth SONA is the youth's declaration that they refuse to settle for the future that has been handed to them, according to Meneses.
"On July 22, we invite every young Filipino to stand with us,in our schools, communities, workplaces, and on the streets, to reclaim our future and demand the reforms our generation deserves,” she added.
